You will be able to approach the ballot box with a smartphone. The simplest verification method has been selected

Pursuant to the agreement signed in June this year. the Act on the mObywatel application, the electronic ID embedded in the program is equivalent to a physical identity document. This means that the parliamentary elections to be held later this month will be the first in which it will be possible to vote based on both a (plastic) ID card and passport, as well as a smartphone with the mObywatel application.

How will the National Electoral Commission ensure that abuses do not occur? “Visual method” selected

Confirming your identity before casting a vote using mObywatel can be a huge help for many people. As he reported, 4 million people are already using version 2.0 of the application (containing a digital ID). The problem is that – as noted by “Rzeczpospolita” – the National Electoral Commission chose the least secure method of verifying digital evidence.

The authenticity of documents displayed on smartphone screens will be verified using the so-called visual method, which the National Electoral Commission informed about in its guidelines for district commissions – reminds “Rz”. The committee members will therefore look at the phone’s display and compare the appearance of the person in the photo with the image of the person with the mID.

This is the simplest, but only one of three methods used to verify the authenticity of a document. As part of the second (functional) stage, the inspector asks you to run one of the application’s functions to confirm that what he sees on the screen is actually the official mObywatel application (and not, for example, a recorded screenshot or video sent by another person). The third and safest method is for the person with the mID to scan the QR code, which confirms the authenticity of the application. This is a verification method

However, Sylwester Marciniak, the chairman of the National Electoral Commission, explained that committee members should pay attention to the elements displayed on the screen, including the current time and date, a waving flag and a hologram whose colors change when the device is tilted. In case of further doubts, the committee may also ask you to log in to mObywatel again. However, such a decision is surprising because – as the newspaper writes – the Ministry of Digitization promotes the use of the above-mentioned QR codes as a safe verification method, which – even before the premiere of the application in version 2.0 – trained officials.

However, experienced election officials interviewed by “Rz” reassure us. They claim that counterfeiting a color-changing hologram is beyond the skill of the average fraudster, and that e.g. postal voting leaves much more room for abuse. Therefore, as long as the committee members reliably verify the authenticity of the application, there should be no problems.